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ArabianAid to Bible Understanding
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For the most part the Arabians were a wandering people who led a pastoral life, dwelling in tents. (Isa. 13:20; Jer. 3:2) Others, however, were traders and some are mentioned as merchants for Tyre. (Ezek. 27:21) God’s servants had numerous contacts with them. The Midianite merchants on their way to Egypt to whom Joseph was sold were Arabian, as were the Sabeans from S Arabia who raided Job’s cattle and she-asses. (Gen. 37:28; Job 1:1, 15) During their forty-year trek in the wilderness the Israelites came into calamitous contact with the Baal-worshiping Midianites (Num. 25:6, 14-18), and, during the period of the Judges, hordes of camel-riding Arabians regularly raided Israel for seven years, until Judge Gideon administered them a severe defeat.—Judg. 6:1-6; 7:12-25.
Rulers of Arabian kingdoms paid tribute to King Solomon. (1 Ki. 10:15; 2 Chron. 9:14) The Arabs paid Jehoshaphat a tribute of 7,700 rams and an equal number of he-goats, but later allied themselves with the Philistines against Jehoshaphat’s son and successor Jehoram, their marauder bands killing many of his sons. (2 Chron. 17:11; 21:16; 22:1) Uzziah waged successful warfare against them during his reign. (2 Chron. 26:1, 7) Arabian opposers were among those causing difficulty to Nehemiah during the restoration of Jerusalem’s walls.—Neh. 2:19; 4:7, 8; 6:1.
Though nomadic, generally independent, and often quite isolated from the mainstream of activity of those times, the Arabs came in for prophetic attention and judgment by God. (Isa. 21:13; Jer. 25:17-24) Centuries later, some Arabians were perhaps among those becoming members of the early Christian congregation at Pentecost.—Acts 2:11, 41; see ARABIA.
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AradAid to Bible Understanding
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ARAD
(Aʹrad) [fugitive].
1. One of the headmen of the tribe of Benjamin who at one time lived in Jerusalem.—1 Chron. 8:15, 28.
2. A city on the southern border of Canaan, whose king attacked Israel as they approached Canaan. The Israelites devoted the district to destruction and called it “Hormah,” meaning “ban.” (Num. 21:1-3; 33:40) They did not then settle there, however, and evidently some of the inhabitants escaped destruction. Hence, the king of Arad is included in the list of thirty-one kings later vanquished in Joshua’s whirlwind campaign. (Josh. 12:14) The Kenites later settled in the wilderness area to the S of Arad.—Judg. 1:16.
The site is identified with Tell ʽArad, one of the most imposing mounds in the Negeb region. It lies on a somewhat rolling plain about twenty-two and a half miles (36 kilometers) E-NE of Beer-sheba. It is one of the few sites in the Negeb that have retained their same names for the past three thousand years.
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ArahAid to Bible Understanding
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ARAH
(Aʹrah) [wayfarer or traveler].
1. A son of Ulla of the tribe of Asher.—1 Chron. 7:30, 39.
2. Head of a family whose members returned to Jerusalem from Babylon with Zerubbabel. (Ezra 2:1, 2, 5; Neh. 7:6, 7, 10) Probably the father of Shecaniah, the father-in-law of Tobiah the Ammonite.—Neh. 6:18.
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AramAid to Bible Understanding
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ARAM
(Aʹram) [highland, high, exalted].
1. The last son listed of Shem’s five sons. Aram and his four sons, Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash, constituted five of the seventy post-Flood families, and their descendants were the Aramaeans and Syrians.—Gen. 10:22; 1 Chron. 1:17.
2. The son of Kemuel and a grandson of Nahor, the latter being Abraham’s brother. Aram was, therefore, a grandnephew of Abraham and a first cousin once removed of Isaac. Rebekah, the daughter of Aram’s uncle Bethuel, was Aram’s first cousin. Nahor’s family did not leave Mesopotamia with Abraham, but years later “the report got through to Abraham” of Nahor’s progeny, including news of Aram.—Gen. 22:20-23; 11:27, 31; 24:4, 10.
3. One of the four “sons” of Shomer of the tribe of Asher, and listed among the “heads of the house of the forefathers, select, valiant, mighty men, heads of the chieftains.” (1 Chron. 7:34, 40) Both Aram and his father were born in Egypt, since his grandfather and great-grandfather were numbered among the offspring of Jacob who ‘came into Egypt.’—Gen. 46:8, 17.
4. In the Authorized Version Aram occurs at Matthew 1:3, 4 and at Luke 3:33.—See ARNI; RAM No. 1.
5. The name “Aram” is used in a geographical sense, by itself and in conjunction with other terms, to refer to regions in which the descendants of Aram were concentrated.
Aram, used alone, basically applies to Syria and is generally so translated. (Judg. 10:6; 2 Sam. 8:6, 12; 15:8; Hos. 12:12) It then included the region from the Lebanon mountains across to Mesopotamia and from the Taurus mountains in the N down to Damascus and beyond in the S.—See SYRIA.
Aram-naharaim (Ps. 60, title) literally means “Aram of the two rivers” and is generally translated with the Greek word of related meaning, “Mesopotamia.” The two rivers were the Euphrates and the Tigris. Stephen speaks of Abraham as living in Mesopotamia while yet down in Ur of the Chaldees (Acts 7:2), and, when sending his servant to seek a wife for Isaac many years later, Abraham told him to go to the city of Nahor in (Upper) Mesopotamia (Aram-naharaim). (Gen. 24:2-4, 10) Balaam of Pethor
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